Up until like 3 years ago, Dr. Dre was the last person that people thought would become the first billionaire. Everyone was pinning that on Diddy, or Jay Z...or even 50 Cent, but not Dre. Then he and Jimmy Iovine sold half their stake in Beats By Dre in 2011 to HTC for $300 million, and he made a cool $150 million from the deal. And then in 2013, he and Jimmy Iovine took a $500 million investment loan, and systematically bought back the 50% stake that HTC had earlier purchased...they ended up paying $315 million total for the 50% stake that they sold to HTC. Now, he and Jimmy Iovine, are selling Beats to Apple, and since Dre owns 50% of Beat By Dre, he should make a cool $1.6 million from the deal. Reports have it that he is set to make just about a billion, so I am guessing some other things are attached to the deal...or maybe, that is what he makes after taxes. The deal with Apple has been confirmed by a video that Tyrese put on his Facebook yesterday, of he and Dre celebrating in the studio. You can also read more about this below, according to USA Today...
Apple is set to acquire headphone maker and music company Beats Electronics for a reported $3.2 billion. The acquisition could be announced as early as next week, the Financial Times reported, based on people familiar with the negotiations. USA TODAY independently confirmed the deal through a source who is not authorized to speak publicly about it. (USA Today)Well, what can I say...I am happy for Dre. But...I hope he still owns shares in the company, even if as little as 1% ownership. I just can't imagine myself looking at my brand making money for people and I am not making anything at all from it. Money, no matter how big it is, will always finish if you don't invest it right. Beats By Dre got to the level it got cos of his brand; the Dre brand, that he built over the last 27 years. So, i just see the deal as him selling his brand, which took him 27 years to build. A billion dollars might look big to the onlooker, but if you consider that Apple is going to make money from his brand till eternity (or at least, till the headphones stop selling), then a billion doesn't look so big after all.
Anyway, check out the video of Dr. Dre and Tyrese in the studio celebrating Dre's big deal.
No comments:
Post a Comment